Are vested interests keeping us fat?

Powerful and influential food industry lobbies in Australia and New Zealand have set the two countries to fail in stemming their obesity epidemics, according to a new study, led by Professor Boyd Swinburn, professor of population nutrition and global health at the University of Auckland. This story actually appeared in an Asian publication but hardly surprises me. I’ve now been putting my eager, “Healthy Parents, Healthy Baby = fundamental preventive healthcare” toes through the doors of The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, various nation-wide Pharmacy chains, State Health, Federal Health and Shadow Health Departments for over a decade. The net result of all that activity is initial excitement, perception of the value and of the potential, but at the end of the day, a complete lack of resolve and finally, inaction. My approaches to various university research departments have been equally unproductive.

You might think I'd be tempted to chuck it all in and go back to slapping labels on bottles behind the dispensary counter. But I persist! I truly don’t believe this rejection is anything to do with me or my material, which has the potential to improve every aspect of reproductive, infant and adult health! Rather, I believe that lack of widespread take-up is because I have no collateral clout. First of all, my educational content doesn’t align comfortably with the current sickness model that pervades our healthcare system, I’m not able to pay to have my services or products on pharmacy shelves, and of course I don’t have the resources that would allow donations to politicians or political parties. 

All of that said, I remain the eternal optimist. The dark side of inappropriate lobby groups and vested interests are now being exposed on a regular basis and I reckon that the posse of good guys, the true health and wellbeing advocates and educators, are all set to ride into town! Giddyup!!

Nutrition for brain health

Our brain is only about 2 per cent of our total body weight, but it accounts for at least 25 per cent of our metabolic demands! Now that statistic is definitely worth thinking about! A quarter of our metabolic demands are made by our brain, no wonder we’ve got an epidemic of mental health issues sitting alongside the physical issues that are a legacy of over-supply, under-nutrition, toxic overload, deranged gut microbiota and vitamin D deficiency to name just a few key issues. 

Restoring mental (and emotional health) could potentially have a massive impact, not only  on levels of depression which are set to be the biggest cause of disability by 2020, but on learning ability in schools and other institutions, on violence in society, on dependence on social poisons such as cigarettes and alcohol and on the incidence of recreational and hard-core drug-taking.

Where to begin for a healthier brain? This infographic does a great job of giving you all the details which can be summed up as, clean, green, wholefood diet, improved gut health, plenty of purified water, no cigarettes, reduced alcohol and caffeine, regular exercise and exposure to sunlight and restful sleep free from electromagnetic pollution (e.g.mobile phones). Sounds just like my prescription for couples planning a pregnancy...  

Speaking of brain food

It’s official - the average Western diet damages your brain! Of course lots of people have known that fact for a very long time - but now Australian researchers at Macquarie University, reviewing decades of evidence, have linked the high-fat, high-sugar, typical Western-style diet to impaired brain functioning and development of neurodegenerative conditions. They make it clear that the same foods that are making us fat are impairing our mental function and are also disturbing our appetite regulation.

The bad news ... there is limited evidence to show that the neurodegenerative decline is reversible. 

Another study on the subject of memory and improving cognition, a topic very dear to every baby-boomer’s heart, the Mediterranean diet rears its healthy head again. Yep, the benefits of olive oil, lots of red, purple and green vegetables, plus seafood, nuts and legumes is undisputed. In other words, the things to avoid are red meat and dairy, those saturated fats that the Macquarie researchers identified as the trouble-makers. 

The good news ... you can set your children on the right path, give them the very best possible start in mental (and physical) health. The introduction to what you and your partner need to eat and do in the time before you get pregnant in my new mini ebooks. 

Your kids will thank you for their healthy weight!

Soaring intakes of sugar-sweetened drinks are associated with increased calorie consumption of other foods such as sweets and pizza in children, warn researchers.

Ten thousand children were studied. Those who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks or fruit juice sweetened with sugar (SSBs) were found to consume more high-fat, high-sugar foods generally. And the higher their consumption of SSBs, the more fried food, pizza, cakes, cookies and sweets they ate! 

This study should come as no surprise - as I blogged recently - studies have proven that junk food is addictive and junk-food-addicted, fat kids frequently point the finger of blame at their parents. They mightn’t be aware of the reasons, but they’re right that the fault for the fat, in many cases, doesn’t lie with them.

What would it take for your kids to thank you for slim build, strong physique, mental acuity, immune competence, gut health and a host of other vital goodies? Optimal physical, mental and emotional health isn’t in the lap of the gods, it’s not just the luck of the draw. It’s in your hands! You and your partner have the chance to give your kids the greatest gift of all - a lifetime of preference for real, live, healthy food, normal weight control mechanisms and so much more. You can get started now!

Be fearless - defy the doom-sayers

This story about “cancer-clusters” is interesting and raises a theory that I have long held. Modern medicine feeds on fear and as a population we are less “well” than we could or should be simply because we buy into the fear-mongering. But before I get started on that particular soap-box, back to the cancer-cluster story. It seems that there may be clusters (of any disease for that matter but cancer strikes fear into the hearts of most), however trying to pin-point a causative agent is usually a futile task, with clusters then dismissed as serendipity or random happenstance. 

Now back to the fear-mongering. It infects most of the population - none more so than the conceiving, reproducing, birthing and breastfeeding population, with whom I'm most familiar. It’s ubiquitous, it’s insidious and it’s under-mining women’s most fundamental beliefs in themselves and their bodies. But above all the fear-mongering is about big business. 

Prospective parents and new mums and dads listen up! Think of the massive commercial interests in IVF, pre-natal diagnostic screening, medical intervention and surgical births and breast milk substitutes before you buy into the spin of Dr. Fear and his cronies. 

“We'll assess how many healthy eggs you have left.” 

“We need to see if your baby's the right size for dates.” 

“We have to check the position of your placenta.”

“Your baby’s big, but your pelvis is small!” 

“Your baby’s not latching on, she’s still hungry!” and on and on ...

Step away, ignore the doomsayers and check out a different story. Find a story-teller that makes your heart sing, your spirits lift and infuses you with optimism, positivity and a belief in yourself. Then see if you can create a cluster of like-minded prospective and new mums! What would it take ... for you to be free of infection-with-fear?

Knowledge is power, and power trumps fear. Here are some brand new, inexpensive ways to wise up and get with the power.

Don’t wait til you’re pregnant to improve your diet ...

Pioneering studies by molecular geneticist, Robert A. Waterland shed some light on how the foods that an about-to-be or newly-pregnant mother eats in the days and weeks before and around the time of conception, may affect the way genes function in her children, and consequently her children's health. 

Waterland, funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has examined subsistence farming villages in West Africa, tracking the epigenetic changes and linking them to the dramatic seasonal differences in the diets (both amount and types of foods) of women in the villages. His research not only confirms the vital importance of pre and peri-conception diet and supplementation habits, but sheds light on how the epigenetic mechanism actually works. If you’re not familiar with the term “epigenetics”, it simply means above and beyond genetics. For those who are interested in the actual mechanisms, they can impact, for example, the levels at which an everyday biochemical process, DNA methylation, occurs at regions of certain genes. DNA methylation is essential for cell development and for stabilizing cell function.

So epigenetic changes occur at the most fundamental cellular level and are exhibited across generations. While Waterland observes the negative genetic impact of dietary restriction (for example during the peak rainy season) his work provides yet more compelling incentives to get your diet into great shape before you conceive. Then back it up with robust supplementation to ensure those epigenetic effects are positive not negative ones!

       

More in my latest mini ebooks

Enhance your fertility naturally, stop the “ticking clock”

This week there was a full page ad in the Sunday supplement, promoting IVF. Following hot on its heels was the story of an IVF Clinic giving women the myths and the facts about age and declining fertility. The fact that this lecture was held in Sydney’s trendiest bar and nightspot made it pretty clear that IVF have identified a big market in the upwardly mobile women in corporate and professional Sydney and are going after it aggressively!

Then there was the news that infertile Australian women are paying $19,000 to ship in eggs from a US egg-bank to deal with a local shortage!. 

I have to ask the question...What would it take for equal resources and publicity opportunities to be available for the promotion of Healthy Parents, Healthy Baby program and products? I’m putting it out there, because couples really need to hear the other side of the story. 

One important fact they need to know is that 2010 (most recent) statistics for combined Australian & NZ Assisted Reproductive Technology, offers just 18.1 percent live baby. Turn that around, it becomes close to 82 percent failure rate! How many intelligent, high-achieving couples would spend money on a service or technology that failed in 82 cases out of 100! I wonder...?

But the good news is, increasing age isn’t the fertility death-knell that it’s cracked up to be. There are healthy, natural ways to stop the ticking clock, and dramatically improve the health of eggs and sperm and your chance of conception. Best of all the likelihood of having a truly, happy, baby are also dramatically increased, an important by-product of conception that the IVF clinics blithely ignore along with their miserable “success” rate.

Now I’ve got brand new mini-ebooks to get you and your partner on the right track to a healthy natural conception (and healthy pregnancy)!